"The feeling I had physically when I got out of the car, I knew I had set myself back somehow with the concussion thing," he said. "So I was really angry with that, because I spent four weeks to get to where I was great (after another hidden concussion in August), and now I was going to take two steps back and have to redo that all again.

"I've regretted that, I've regretted making those comments. I think I may have overreacted and overstated my feelings quite a bit."

In an interview at his hauler after the October race, Earnhardt told reporters that people who liked restrictor-plate racing (done at Talladega and Daytona) were "bloodthirsty." Superspeedway races mean the cars are bunched up into packs, which often end in large crashes — one of which took out Earnhardt's No. 88 car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sustained a concussion after being collected in a 25-car pileup at Talladega in October of 2012.(Photo: Butch Dill, AP)

"If this is what we did every week, I wouldn't be doing it," he said at the time. "I'll just put it to you like that. If this is how we raced every week, I'd find another job."

"I don't even want to go to Daytona and Talladega next year," he added, "but I ain't got much choice."

Looking back now, Earnhardt said it was frustrating to accept running around all day for 495 miles and then crashing in the last five miles of the race.

Knowing he sustained a second concussion in a short period of time — which doctors say can be dangerous — was a huge blow to him. A couple days later, he sought the advice of a doctor, who recommended he miss two Chase races.

Prior to the wreck, Earnhardt said he was back to feeling "100% myself" after the testing crash at Kansas and had been optimistic about getting back into the Chase without worry of his health.

He hoped to move on and never worry about his Kansas concussion again. But that wasn't the case thanks to the Talladega crash, and Earnhardt was furious about it.

"I can't believe nobody is sensible enough to realize just how ridiculous that was," he said then, looking at a group of reporters. "That is ridiculous that all those cars were tore up. And everybody is just, 'Ho hum, no big deal.' That's not alright."

Still, Earnhardt said he doesn't think about Talladega negatively now. It's a track where he knows his team can win — he has five career Sprint Cup wins at Talladega, his most at any track — and it's overdue for doing so, he said.

"I think about it as a race where I've done well, a place where we need to win, I can win, I know what I need to do to win and we can make it a good weekend," he said. "... If I do everything I need to do, I won't have to worry about being swept up in no last lap crashes and we can go into Victory Lane and celebrate. That's what I think about when I'm preparing to come here."